The past decade has been marked by a technological revolution driven by the convergence of the data processing industry with the consumer electronics industry. An area where this relationship has been advantageous is that of digital video recording. A variety of digital recording devices have been replacing the analog VCRs (Video Cassette Recorders) that have been the video recording standard for a generation. Digital video recording has many advantages, including the ability to randomly access any portion of the digitally recorded content, higher definition video displays and longer storage life. This has resulted in the emergence of several classes of digital video recorders, such as set top boxes based upon the Personal Video Recorder (PVR). A description of the PVR and other digital video recorders and their increasing consumer functions as computer controlled “engines” in television set top boxes may be found in: IEEE Spectrum periodical (IEEE Inc.), New York, N.Y., July 2002, at pp. 26-31.
As is the case with each major technological advance, particularly in consumer fields, the video recording industry is faced with a conventional dilemma. All of the millions upon millions of conventional VCRs cannot be scrapped and everyone provided with a new digital device. Even if such a momentous transition were possible, what would become of presentation content presently stored in the VCR sequential tape cassettes. At the electronic entertainment field institution levels of the commercial video and film industries, this does not present a problem. There is effective higher level but expensive apparatus for making video tape content conversions to digital content. However, the personal consumer would need the means to inexpensively convert from his video cassette recorder to a digital data storage format. Even more significantly, this personal consumer would be in need of a way to inexpensively convert his personal libraries of VCR video program and presentation recordings, as well as personal video memorabilia into a digital format.